What Does Psalm 38:18 Mean in the King James?
For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
To declare what is crooked is to set it before you, where it can no longer stay unnamed.
THE MEANING
Your crookedness can be spoken into the open, and your missing can be met with grief rather than concealment. The verse holds naming and distress together without making either one disappear. What you name is no longer only an unspoken burden within you.
THE ROOT
אַגִּיד
ʾaggid
GROWS FROM
נגד
נָגַד (nagad): to tell, announce, or make known; this family also carries the sense of what is before or in front.
“declare” in this verse is ʾaggid. The verb belongs to a family that can also mean what stands before you: declaring brings what is hidden into view. The speaker’s words do not erase the crookedness; they make it visible.
ALSO GROWS
neged: Before, opposite, or in front of.
נֶגֶד
This branch gives declaration a spatial edge: what is named is brought before awareness.
nagid: Leader or prince; one who stands at the front.
נָגִיד
This branch keeps the root’s sense of coming to the front, echoing how the speaker brings the hidden matter forward.
אֶדְאַג
ʾedʾag
GROWS FROM
דאג
דָּאַג (daʾag): to worry, be anxious, or feel concern.
The Hebrew word translated sorry comes from a root of anxious concern. The speaker’s sorrow carries the strain of being troubled by what is missing, not detached regret.
ALSO GROWS
daʾag: To worry or be anxious.
דָּאַג
This verb is the root in the verse’s expression of sorrow, showing its note of distress.
deʾagah: Anxiety or worry.
דְּאָגָה
This noun makes the root’s emotional force explicit: the speaker is troubled by the missing.
חַטָּאתִי
ḥaṭṭaʾti
GROWS FROM
חטא
חָטָא (ḥaṭaʾ): to miss or go wrong.
“sin” in this verse is ḥaṭṭaʾti. This root keeps the image of a miss intact, pointing to a deviation rather than an abstract label. Here the speaker names that missing aloud and feels its seriousness.
ALSO GROWS
ḥeṭʾ: A missing, fault, or offense.
חֵטְא
This noun names the same kind of missing that the speaker says is theirs.
ḥaṭṭaʾt: Missing or sin; in some contexts, an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
This form shows the root’s connection between naming the missing and what is brought in response to it.
THE PATTERN
Naming what is missing brings it into the open, where it can be faced and released rather than concealed.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.The Hebrew מַגִּיד (magid, declaring or showing) comes from נגד (nagad, to declare or make known), with the root’s nun assimilated in that form. The same root underlies אַגִּיד (ʾaggid, I will declare) here: the heavens’ testimony and the speaker’s confession both bring what is hidden into view.
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